Research Interests

African Diaspora, Southern Africa and African American History

Background

Robert Trent Vinson received his Ph.D. in African History from Howard University. He has written The Americans are Coming!: The Dream of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa (Ohio University Press, 2012) and Albert Luthuli: Mandela before Mandela (Ohio University Press, 2018). Vinson is also the co-author of two additional books in preparation, Shaka's Progeny: Zulu Cultures and the Making of the Modern Atlantic World, co-authored with Benedict Carton and Crossing the Water: African Americans and South Africa, 1890-1965, a documentary history co-edited with Robert Edgar and David Anthony (forthcoming, Ohio University Press). Vinson has also published several book chapters and articles and reviews, including in the American Historical Review, the Journal of African History, the African Studies Review, the Journal of Southern African Studies and the Journal of American Studies. Vinson is on the editorial board of Michigan State University Press and Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies.

Publications

Books

The Americans Are Coming!: Dreams of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa(Athens: Ohio University Press, 2012)

Before Mandela, Like A King: The Prophetic Politics of Chief Albert Luthuli (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2018)

Books in Progress

Shaka’s Progeny: Zulu Cultures and the Making of the Modern Atlantic World(co-authored with Benedict Carton)

Crossing the Water: African Americans and South Africa, 1890-1965: A Documentary History(with David H. Anthony and Robert R. Edgar, (advance contract with Ohio University Press)

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“Albert Luthuli’s Private Struggle: How an Icon of Peace Came to Accept Sabotage in South Africa,” with Benedict Carton Journal of African History 58, 1, January 2018

“Up From Slavery and Down with Apartheid!: African Americans and Black South Africans against the Global Color Line,” Special Issue, The Global South in the Black Atlantic, Journal of American Studies 51, 3 August 2018)

“The Transnational Jeremiad Tradition in American and South African Christianity” Special Issues, Transnational Christianities, South African Historical Journal (currently under peer review)

“Abantu-Batho, Garveyism and Black Transnational Print Culture” in Peter Limb ed. Abantu-Batho: The History of an African newspaper (Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand Press, 2012)

“Providential Design: American Negroes and Garveyism in South Africa” in Michael O. West, William G. Martin, and Fanon Che Wilkins eds. From Toussaint to Tupac: The Black International since the Age of Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009)

“Zulus, African-Americans and the African Diaspora” with Robert R. Edgar, in Benedict Carton, John Laband and Jabulani Sithole ed. Being Zulu: Contesting Identities Past and Present (Pietermaritzburg: University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Press, 2008)

Administrative Positions

2014, 2010: Program Director, Cape Town Summer Abroad Program, The College of William and Mary

2010-2012: Co-chair, The Lemon Project: A Journey of Reconciliation, The College of William and Mary

Education

B.A. Psychology, 1992University of Nevada-Las Vegas

M.A. History, 1995Howard University

Ph.D. (with distinction), History, 2001Howard University

Academic Positions

Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Virginia 2002Assistant Professor, Washington Univ. in St. Louis 2002-07Visiting Assistant Professor, College of William and Mary 2006-2007Assistant Professor, College of William and Mary 2007-10Associate Professor, College of William and Mary 2010-2011University Associate Professor for Teaching Excellence, College of William and Mary, 2011-Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, 2014-

Courses Taught

Africa

History of Africa before 1800History of Africa since 1800History of South AfricaModern History of South Africa (since 1870)Gender, Sexuality and Kinship in AfricaThe Rise, Fall and Legacies of Apartheid

Transnational History

History of the African DiasporaThe Atlantic Slave TradeHistory of Pan-AfricanismThe Global Color Line: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the anti-Apartheid movement in South AfricaAfrican Americans and AfricaAfrican American History in Global Context: The Black International

African American History

African American History before 1865African American History since 1865